Back to reality

My oh my, a lot has happened in the last couple days. First of all, I started my summer classes on Monday, launching me back into the real world where I have more to worry about than just food and blogging. Additionally, I am happy to report that I will also be starting a new part-time job next week at Georgetown University! Although it will add 20 more hours of work to my schedule, I am committed to my new life of homemade and unprocessed food. I think the key will be making larger quantities of food on the days I have free time so that I won’t have to work as hard to come up with meals on the days that I’m particularly busy.

The second exciting event of the last few days was a trip to a Virginia farm with a couple friends, one of whom has a share in this particular farm. It may sound trite, but actually seeing how the food was grown along with all of the planning and labor that is involved in making a small family farm successful really made me appreciate the produce I’ve been eating these last few weeks. Not to mention we got some freshly picked salad greens, eggs right out of the chicken coop, seedlings for my home garden, and saw a beautiful peacock hanging out on top of a greenhouse!

Finally, my cooking skills continue to improve and my confidence in the kitchen is growing. I made a batch of whole wheat pasta all by myself (although Kevin was only a few feet away in the living room answering my questions), which I combined with onion, asparagus, and rainbow chard in a creamy white wine sauce.

Also, I made a super easy flatbread from a recipe provided by my lovely Leah: combine 1 cup flour (I used whole wheat), 2/3 cup milk, 2 eggs, pinch of salt and your favorite seasoning (I chopped up fresh rosemary); cook at 400 degrees for 20 minutes; take out of oven, add toppings, return to oven until toppings are hot and cheese is melted.